Thailand Museum Director Indicted On Fraud Charges ..

[taxexile]

Thailand museum director indicted in federal probe

By GREG RISLING – 1 hour ago AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The director of a Thailand museum was indicted on a wire fraud charge in connection with a federal investigation into looted Southeast Asian antiquities.

Roxanna Brown, a 62-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested late Friday while visiting relatives in Seattle. She was scheduled to speak at the University of Washington on Saturday.

Brown is charged with one count of wire fraud. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison. Health problems prevented her from appearing in federal court in Seattle on Monday, and it was unclear when the hearing would be rescheduled, prosecutors there said.

Brown, the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand, is accused of allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms that were donated at inflated prices to several Southern California museums so collectors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said it didn't know whether Brown had an attorney.

Michael Filipovic, a public defender appointed to represent her temporarily in Seattle, said he did not know if Brown had hired an attorney to fight the federal charges in California. He declined to comment on the allegations in the indictment.

She is the first person to be arrested in an ongoing probe into looted artifacts. Federal agents raided several Southern California museums and a Los Angeles gallery in January, searching for artifacts allegedly taken from Thailand's Ban Chiang archaeological site, one of the most important prehistoric settlements ever discovered in Southeast Asia.

An affidavit filed in the case said the gallery's owners, Jonathan and Cari Markell, used Brown's electronic signature several times to falsify appraisal forms. In one case, an appraisal for items to be donated to the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena claims Brown had inspected the items.

The couple have not been charged. They have previously declined to comment about the investigation to The Associated Press. Jonathan Markell did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent to him Monday.

The raids followed an undercover investigation by a National Park Service special agent who posed as a collector interested in various artifacts. The agent learned that some of the artifacts managed to pass through U.S. customs because they had "Made in Thailand" labels affixed to them, making it appear they were replicas.

Court documents said the Markells and the agent met more than a dozen times and regularly e-mailed and called one another about antiquities from Southeast Asia. Some of the calls and meetings were recorded, the warrants said.

Associated Press writer Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.

[Johpa]

Thailand museum chief arrested on fraud charge in Seattle

By GREG RISLING

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The director of a Thailand museum was arrested in Seattle and indicted on a wire-fraud charge in connection with a federal investigation into looted Southeast Asian antiquities.

Roxanna Brown, a 62-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested late Friday while visiting relatives in Seattle and scheduled to speak the next day at the University of Washington......

(not sure if I can quote entire article, but easily googled.)

[toptuan]

Asian-antiquities expert held in SeaTac dies in custody

By Mike Carter

Seattle Times staff reporter, Thursday, May 15

A renowned Asian-antiquities expert, indicted in Los Angeles in connection with a federal investigation into illegal trafficking of pilfered Southeast Asian art, died early Wednesday morning in the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac.

Roxanna Brown, 62, the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand, was found dead about 2:30 a.m., said Federal Detention Center spokeswoman Maggie Ogden. She was arrested last week in Seattle, where she was scheduled to speak at the University of Washington.

An autopsy was performed by the King County Medical Examiner's Office on Wednesday, although the results were not immediately available. Brown's brother, Fred Brown, of Chicago, told The Associated Press that her death was due to an apparent heart attack.

Fred Brown said his sister maintained she was innocent, and he blamed the stress of her arrest for her death. "She wasn't in good health to begin with, but they definitely brought on the heart attack," he said.

Emily Langlie, the spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, said Roxanna Brown was checked by medical staff members at the Federal Detention Center on Monday.

Ogden did not return several telephone calls seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

Brown became interested in Asian art while a journalist covering the Vietnam War, and she rose to become one of the foremost authorities on the ancient-ceramics trade in Southeast Asia.

Brown was arrested at a Seattle hotel Friday as she prepared to have dinner with colleagues from the UW, where she was scheduled to speak the next day.

Had been ill

Brown, who lost a leg in an accident in 1980, was in a wheelchair and was suffering from flulike symptoms severe enough to postpone her initial court appearance on Monday.

She appeared before a U.S. magistrate briefly Tuesday, and she was scheduled for another hearing Wednesday to pave the way for her extradition to Los Angeles.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns, the Los Angeles prosecutor heading the illegal-antiquities investigation, said Brown was "one of many targets" of the probe. He declined to say how her death would affect the investigation.

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Brown, who lived in Bangkok, was indicted on a single count of wire fraud for allegedly allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms of items donated to museums.

Those appraisals, according to court documents, were inflated so that the donors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.

Federal probe

Some of the smuggled artifacts were allegedly taken from the Ban Chiang archaeological site in Udon Thani, one of the most significant prehistoric settlements ever found in Southeast Asia, according to court documents.

Federal agents raided a number of Southern California art galleries in January, including the Silk Roads Gallery in L.A.

According to an affidavit filed in connection with the searches, the gallery's owners helped an undercover agent obtain an appraisal — over Brown's signature — of just under $5,000 for several items the agent purchased for $1,500 cash.

Other than Brown's, no criminal charges have been filed. Johns said there is no evidence that any Washington state museums are involved in the alleged fraud.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or [email protected] Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

[sriracha john]

Asian-antiquities expert held in SeaTac dies in custody

A renowned Asian-antiquities expert, indicted in Los Angeles in connection with a federal investigation into illegal trafficking of pilfered Southeast Asian art, died early Wednesday morning in the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac.

Roxanna Brown, 62, the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand, was found dead about 2:30 a.m., said Federal Detention Center spokeswoman Maggie Ogden. She was arrested last week in Seattle, where she was scheduled to speak at the University of Washington.

An autopsy was performed by the King County Medical Examiner's Office on Wednesday, although the results were not immediately available. Brown's brother, Fred Brown, of Chicago, told The Associated Press that her death was due to an apparent heart attack.

Fred Brown said his sister maintained she was innocent, and he blamed the stress of her arrest for her death. "She wasn't in good health to begin with, but they definitely brought on the heart attack," he said.

UPDATE... and now a settlement on her death...

Roxanna Brown was both a target and an informant to investigators looking into the donations of allegedly looted Thai antiquities to museums.

U.S. settles with family of Southeast Asia scholar

Roxanna Brown was both informant and target in a probe into donations of allegedly looted Thai antiquities to museums. Days after her arrest, she died in custody. The government will pay $880,000.

The U.S. government has agreed to pay $880,000 to the estate of Roxanna Brown, the 62-year-old Southeast Asia scholar who died in federal custody last year.

Brown was arrested in May 2008 amid a federal investigation into donations of allegedly looted Thai antiquities to four Southern California museums. Four days later, while awaiting a court hearing, Brown suffered a perforated ulcer and died in her cell at a federal detention center in Seattle.

In their lawsuit, Brown's family said her death was the result of negligence and callousness by federal authorities, who had charged her with a single count of wire fraud and allegedly failed to provide her adequate medical treatment after she became ill.

Affidavits from fellow prisoners filed in the suit described Brown writhing in pain and crying out for help before she died.

"Ms. Brown's death was the result of a series of unfortunate events which we regret," said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle. "We decided it was in the best interests of the government to resolve the case, and we worked cooperatively with Ms. Brown's family to reach this settlement."

The settlement leaves unanswered broader questions about Brown's role in the alleged scheme.

As The Times revealed in a series of stories last year, Brown was both an informant to investigators and a target of their inquiries before her death.

Brown, who received her doctorate from UCLA, lived in Vietnam and Thailand for years and dedicated her life to the protection and study of Southeast Asian ceramics.

But documents filed by government investigators suggested that Brown also sold Thai antiquities to Robert Olson, an alleged smuggler from Cerritos. She also allegedly appraised objects for Jonathan and Cari Markell, Los Angeles gallery owners whose clients then allegedly donated objects to local museums for inflated tax write-offs.

In January 2008, hundreds of federal agents raided the Bowers Museum in Orange County, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, the Mingei Museum in San Diego and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, along with nine other locations in California and Illinois.

Brown was expected to play a key role in the ensuing case, and her death has been a setback to investigators. Since her arrest, made as she visited Seattle for a lecture, there have been no public moves in the case, and some museum officials have voiced frustration at the pace of the investigation.

"It would be nice to finally be able to put this behind us," said Joan Marshall, director of the Pacific Asia Museum. She was awakened at home during the raids and interrogated by federal agents while in her bathrobe.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, would not comment other than to say it is an "active, ongoing investigation."

The Brown family's attorney Tom Ford sees it differently.

"She's collateral damage in an investigation that doesn't seem to be going anywhere," he said.

Brown's adult son and sole heir, Taweesin "Jaime" Ngerntongdee, could not be reached for comment. Karen Lindner, Brown's cousin, said the settlement has provided some closure for the young man, who will use the money to complete his graduate education and create a memorial for his mother, who directed a ceramics museum in Bangkok.

"At the end of the day," Lindner said, "he felt they had admitted their mistake."

- Los Angeles Times / 2009-07-08

Edited July 8, 2009 by sriracha john

[glegolo]

Asian-antiquities expert held in SeaTac dies in custody

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So this lady was a huge criminal and she died in her cell. She probably knew exactly what she was doing.

It is a pity though to die from mistakes by the police.

She was a criminal dont forget that..

Glegolo

[ricklev]

Don't you need to be convicted by a court before you are a criminal?

[mizzi39]

Didn't the original article state that she was both an informant for and targeted by the feds? Playing both sides of the coin? Where is the Federal governments accountability? Hardly a "huge" criminal.

[caf]

Didn't the original article state that she was both an informant for and targeted by the feds? Playing both sides of the coin? Where is the Federal governments accountability? Hardly a "huge" criminal.

I agree but posters like Gregalo are paid up members of the "Hang um high" brigade on TV. Any farang arrested is guilty as charged. I knew they always had that view in Thailand but it seems they are now going worldwide.